Boys' play
by Silverspegel
Summary: Jak and Daxter meet as kids and Samos makes a decision... A short story about friendship and destiny.


_Author's comment: This is my first try, so be gentle... I got the idea for this as I drew a picture of the young boys Jak and Daxter. I wanted to find out how they met and get another perspective on Samos than that of him just being an old grumpy man. So, here you go._

**Fan fic Jak and Daxter – Boy's play**

"Oh my, now this is one tricky predicament I say…"

Samos slowly climbed out of the machine, carrying the silent boy in his arms, careful not to fall as he stepped down to the ground. His older self had told him enough about the place to which they had arrived, for him to be able to get around, but he had not gone in to any deeper details in order to, as he had said; "not to mess up the time continuum too much".

The young sage did agree to his older self's reasoning, only he did wish he'd been taught a little bit more about how to raise a child…

"I'm most certainly not fit for this sort of thing, my boy," he silently mumbled as he put the kid down on the softest green grass he had ever seen in real life.

This was when he decided to take a closer look at the place that was going to be his home for the next decade or so.

'_So, this is Sandover? No wonder the boys wanted to get back here'_, he thought and took a deep breath of the fresh and smog free air. A mild breeze carried the smell of the close by ocean to them as they stood on the hill, the young boy and the man. Samos started to really like the idea of living in this forest of old, in spite of the complicated mission to take care of the boy who was predestined to become one of the greatest heroes of the known civilisation. It was quite a responsibility.

But, as the old one had said, he had made it quite well, so that naturally should mean _he_ would do just as well. He looked at the child by his side. So innocent and unknowing of what fate had in mind for him.

As Samos watched, his heart swelled as he saw the little boy watching a big purple winged butterfly as if he had never seen such beauty before (and probably he hadn't). Knowing part of his fate, Samos almost couldn't bare the thought of what may have turned this child, untouched by hatred or evil, to become the young tormented warrior he had met just recently.

What was it now they'd called him? They didn't know his real name, not even the one who found him knew it and the boy wasn't likely to tell it to them either, silent as he was. Jak, wasn't it?

Samos thought about it for a bit. The name did sound right somehow. The only question was why that was the name finally picked. What would happen if his name was changed?

"Well then, my boy, what shall we call you?" Samos asked, more or less unknowing he was saying it out loud. The boy looked up at him with his big, sky blue eyes that seemed to ask him where they were.

The young sage then smiled and as the boy smiled back he started to chuckle.

"My, oh my, aren't we an odd couple you and I?" he said as the child reached out for him to give him a hug. "What do you say about trying to make some new friends here, huh? We'll be needing some help if we're going to find ourselves a place to live."

He thought for a while and then he set his eyes on the village further down the hill.

"All right, then. From now on, it's you and me. I'll be your uncle, because I'm surely not your father and I don't intend to pretend I am either. You got that?"

The boy looked at the sage and nodded slightly, not quite knowing what the man had said, only that he was supposed to answer him in some way. Then, as the man held out his hand, he took it and walked beside him down the green hill, all the while looking wide eyed around him self in amazement over all the colours and light.

--

A few days and a lot of social connections later, Samos found himself having a house to call his own to share with his little ward. He had been forced to tell one or two lies about where they'd come from and why they were here, he and his little "nephew", but in the end, Samos didn't feel all too bad about it, seeing as it was needed in order to let the boy stay unaware of his future and the villagers calm and friendly.

Time travel sure wasn't something they'd see as the talking of a sane man. At least he didn't think so.

--

Samos looked around for the child, knowing he had been right beside him only a moment ago, but realised that the target for his search wasn't to be found inside the house anymore.

"Oh, curse that boy! Where did he go now?" Samos cried out in a hopeless sigh and rubbed his forehead with one hand as he went outside.

"I have to work out a way of communication with that boy or I'll never be able to keep track of him…"

Further down the hill, at the white shore of Sandover village, the boy in question was following a butterfly, almost hypnotised by its bright red wings as they swiftly moved up and down alongside the small body to keep it floating in the air.

As his feet touched the sand though, he stopped. He looked down, forgetful of the butterfly and stared at the white, soft and sun heated dunes embedding his small feet.

A glimpse of a shattered memory swept by in his mind, of another place where he had first felt this material beneath him. A loving smile and dark eyes in a square face came in mind, accompanied with a set of strong arms lifting him high up in the air.

At first the memory makes him smile, but then it hurts. Not knowing why he feels sad, he starts to walk aimlessly in a try to get away from the unwanted feeling.

A sudden splash from in front of him makes the boy look up and as he sees the wide range of the water he can't help but feeling a little bit stunned. He didn't recognise the view and for a short moment he felt a little bit uneasy as he came to think of what his uncle might say about him wandering off to a place he didn't know.

But as he started to draw himself backwards, he caught a glimpse of something red in all the blue and stopped in his steps in order to see what it was. As the figure moved closer, he realised it was another boy, drenched from top to toe by the water surrounding him. Not knowing what to do, he curiously stayed put, while the redhead clumsily moved closer.

Suddenly the boy out in the water set his sight a bit higher up and spotted him.

"Hey! I haven't seen you before!" he shouted, smiling widely as he started to move faster through the water until he was right in front of the boy on the beach.

"What's your name?" he asked with the curious voice of a four year old, but when the other one didn't answer, it didn't stop him from talking instead.

"I'm Daxter! You're new here, aren't you? Where do you live?"

Not certain to which question he should answer first, the silent boy simply nodded and pointed at a spot somewhere behind himself. Daxter took a long look into the distance as if he was making sure there actually was a house in the pointed out direction.

Looking more or less pleased with the information, Daxter grabbed a hold of the other boy's hand and started walking in the opposite direction, towards some other houses closer to the beach.

"Let's play! I'll follow you home later," he said smiling, and as he was being pulled forward, the other boy silently followed, with a small uncertain smile on his lips.

--

As they walked, Daxter talked without even bothering whether the newly found friend was listening or not. He was just so happy to have found someone who for once didn't tell him to be quiet as soon as he opened his mouth. Every other step he looked at the other boy though, as if checking that he was really there.

"You don't talk much, do you?" he asked suddenly and his friend simply looked at him with a face begging for apology, as if he felt he had done something wrong but couldn't help not doing it.

For a brief second it actually made Daxter silent, as he thought of what to say next.

"Well, I don't mind," the talkative of the two said and got a much relieved smile in return, together with a small squeeze of his hand.

"I can talk instead!" he offered and the smile of the other widened as the blue eyes looking at him seemed to lighten up from within at his words.

"But I need to know what to call you, you know," Daxter said and scratched his head as he thought real hard for a moment.

"I've got it! I can call you Jak, that's the name of my pretend-friend, but since you are here, I don't need him, and Jak is a good name, it shouldn't be wasted, right?"

The other boy looked a little confused by the stream of words coming out of Daxter's mouth and just shrugged, not knowing what to do. The redhead seemed to realise the mistake though and chuckled a bit.

"Oh, right, so, what do you say? Can I call you Jak?"

Now the other boy nodded approvingly and Daxter smiled, proud over himself.

"I'm getting better at this, Jak. You'll see, soon I'll know exactly what you mean. You'll see, Jakkie boy, we'll be the bestest of friends, promise!"

Whether or not the promise was meant to assure himself or "Jak", he still got a happy smile from the newly found friend, and in that moment he really was certain that the promise he had made would be kept. He would make sure it would be so. Because he'd never had a friend that was real before and he wasn't going to lose this one for anything.

--

As Samos walked through the village asking and looking for his little runaway, he was starting to get a little worried that he might have failed his mission already, a feeling he tried to put aside as he scanned the area for a speck of blue pants or green hair.

As he was about to ask for help, he noticed a movement in the corner of his eye and turned towards it. Only a few strides away, sitting calmly in the white dunes, Samos spotted his young protégé working on a small pile of sand in front of him, while smiling widely at another child beside him.

All the fury the sage had built up inside of himself, when thinking about what to say to let the boy know what wrongs he had done, was drained in the instant he saw the boy's face light up at something his new companion said.

This was the first time Samos had ever seen the boy look so calm and happy. But there was still the matter of trying to set up some main rules for the safety of them both, so with a sigh he walked up to the boys in order to brake up their playtime.

As he got closer, though, he heard the voice of the boy with the flaring red hair and stopped halfway. It couldn't possibly be… Could it?

His ears picked up the voice again and he thought it over a bit more before deciding he'd been right. Adding some age to the voice of the boy it was identical to that of a small orange animal he'd come to think very lowly of the more he heard from his never ending yapping.

So _this _was Daxter? A small and harmless boy with the amazing gift of taking away every trace of sorrow in the face of someone who's recently lived through a trauma bad enough to leave nightmares for a lifetime.

And realising this, he suddenly felt sorry for the boy's destiny, and unwilling to admit it, he somehow started to like him. Which made it even harder to go through with the plan that was now forming in his mind.

He had to separate the two before they got closer attached. He could still save these boys; all he had to do was to keep them out of the trouble he knew was waiting for them in the future. If it meant he had to be the bad guy, he would just have to bear it.

With his mind set, he started walking again, putting up a stern face as he drew closer.

"So this is where you've been?" Samos said with an angry voice, surprising even himself that he was able to put up such a charade. The boys both looked up at him as he approached.

"Oh, hello mister! Is Jak supposed to be somewhere? I'm sorry, I know I should have taken him home earlier, but we were having so much fun and…"

"Oh, please spare me the story, _rat_. I'll get him back home myself," Samos snorted at Daxter, remembering too late that he wasn't talking to the annoying ball of fuzz, but a small boy. Then, as he tried to come up with an excuse for his name-calling, he realised that Daxter somehow had managed to find out what to call his nephew and stood a bit dumbfounded for a second.

"Wait a minute, what did you call him?" he asked, openly curious as he stared at the boy.

Not having missed out on the "rat"-thing, Daxter felt more than uneasy with the man who'd come to take away his friend. It made him angry that this stranger was being mean to him without even listening to what he had to say, not even knowing him!

So when he asked about the name, Daxter felt a bit proud to notice the surprise in the man's face.

"I called him Jak, because that's his name, right? Anyway, he doesn't mind," he answered with his voice literally dripping of scorn against him. But Samos didn't seem to notice the hostility.

The sage stood stunned as he realised that somehow this boy had been the one naming Jak in the first place.

"Very well then, since I'm guessing you won't be civil enough to tell me the true story of this, I have no more time to waste on you," Samos said and waved at Jak to come towards him.

"Come now, Jak, we'll have to get back home."

With a sad and apologising look in his eyes, Jak turned to look at his friend before he got up on his feet and took the waitig hand of his uncle.

"Don't worry, Jak! I'll see you again tomorrow!" Daxer shouted out, sounding as if he'd never heard a bad word aimed at him from the sage.

This act of putting up a brave face came to make Samos even more amazed by the boy. It was as if he knew by instinct how to make his friend feel better about things that happened.

'_May the precursors bless you boy, and I'm truly sorry for doing this, but hopefully it will turn out to be for the best for all of us. Forgive me, but I can't just stand by watching this_', he thought as he silently led Jak back home by the hand. One look at him was enough to let Samos know that he'd probably been too late parting them.

--_Some years later_--

"Hey, Jak, wake up already!"

Jak slowly opened his eyes, unwilling to leave the dream he'd been having. It was involving a warm embrace by strong arms and a feeling of safety and happiness that lingered on as he was getting awake.

He yawned and stretched his by sleep numbed limbs and turned to the window beside his bed with a drowsy look.

"Don't give me that '_what_', Jak!" Daxter snapped at him with a hushed voice. "I've been waiting for you to wake up since like forever, you sleep way too much, if you ask me."

Jak smiled and shook his head, amused by his friend's habit of overstating facts. But he still got out of his bed and quickly put on his clothes. He hesitated only a second, before he added the new backpack with the eco-ring he'd been given by his uncle just two days ago.

For some reason he liked it, despite the fact that it was supposed to be used for practice as the old man indefatigably tried to teach him about channelling eco. His uncle had gotten the strange idea in his head that Jak would make a good sage one day.

In the last moment, as a pure impulse, he even strapped on his arm-guards and the single shoulder-guard he'd managed to get as payment from the old jakow-breeder after giving him a hand every now and then.

The old man had told him something about it being parts of some old armour one of his ancestors had worn in some war. Jak had thought it cool and as the man offered him the pieces of old metal as payment, he happily had accepted them.

Finally feeling ready to take off on an adventure, he smiled at Daxter and jumped out through the window to follow him down to the beach beneath the hill upon which Samos's house was built.

"I brought some breakfast," Daxter said as they sat down at their usual spot, on some stones about two steps out in the water. The sun was slowly rising from somewhere far beyond the horizon, sending a golden glow to cover everything in its way. As the birds started to chirp their morning serenades and an early butterfly fluttered by in front of him, Jak sighed happily, feeling completely content with everything.

Daxter looked at him with an understanding smile on his face and pushed an elbow at his side to catch his attention as he reached out the piece of bread he'd taken from the food-cellar of his house before leaving home.

Jak took the offered bread and rustled the bright red hair on top of his friend's head as he took a bite of the improvised breakfast.

"Hey!" Daxter shouted out with pretended discomfort and tried to push Jak off the rock, but as he avoided the push in the exact right moment, the attacker ended up falling into the water himself with a loud splash.

While angrily spitting out water Daxter looked with vengeance in his eyes at his silently laughing friend through the wet strands of hair that had gotten plastered against his face. But just when he was about to jump him, Jak reached out a hand offering him what was left of his bread, since Daxter's own piece had turned in to moistened fish-food as it fell into the water with him.

A little bit surprised by the act, Daxter stood still for a second, but then he decided the moment too good to miss and reached out as if wanting to accept the bread, but instead he grabbed a hold of Jak's wrist and pulled him down with him as he pulled himself backwards.

As Jak hit the water Daxter screamed out his victory and laughed out loud as his friend tried to get his green-blonde hair out of the way of his eyes.

"Don't look at _me_, you started it!" Daxter claimed as he caught the "_Oh, how funny_" –look his friend shot him. Jak was about to object to this, but was interrupted by the sound of someone coming closer, whistling on a merry tune.

As the fisherman came closer he spotted the two soaking wet boys in the water and gave up a slight chuckle, waving at them.

"You boys up already, 'ey? Watch it so ya' don't catch a cold standin' like that too long. Summer's at it's end ya' know."

Jak lifted an eyebrow and looked at Daxter, who simply waved at the comment.

"We're not getting any colds like this, ya' old lurker-eel. It's still warm out!" he shouted back at the man, getting an amused laughter as answer. The fisherman walked on towards the small river flowing from the waterfalls.

Jak followed the villager with his eyes until he was out of sight and then turned towards Daxter with an excited look. Daxter first looked at his friend, not really wanting to believe what he thought he meant to say, and then he shot a look out over the wide waters, towards a dark shape far away. Then he looked back again and Jak started smiling with a challenge written across his face.

"Oh, no, Jakkie boy, my man, I ain't wanna' hear anything about it!" Daxter objected, slowly backing away. "We're not going to Misty Island! Remember what your uncle use to say about that place? It's off limits and oozing of dark mysteries and probably swarming with lurkers! No way I'm setting my foot on that ground!"

The look Jak shot him told him he wasn't going to give up.

'_Come on, it'll be fun! A real adventure, Dax!'_

"I don't know…I'm really not that fond of lurkers, ya' know."

Jak rolled with his eyes at this comment.

'_I won't let them near you. We'll just take a peak and leave. Nothing harmful in that._'

Daxter still wasn't convinced.

"Yeah, but according to old green stuff it's really not that good a place to be at…"

'_Since when did you ever listen to anything my uncle says?_'

Jak had a point. The old sage could just as well be making the stories up in order to keep an eye on them. He'd always disliked the friendship between Daxter and Jak and had tried a lot of tactics in order to keep them apart or, if that didn't work, keep them where he could see them.

That made the choice easier. With an agreeing nod of his head, Daxter admitted his defeat and with a pleased smirk Jak patted him on his shoulder, saying that it would all be alright and nothing but a fun trip.

But already on board in the fisherman's boat he was beginning to have second thoughts. Borrowing the boat was nothing new; they'd done it a lot of times without the owner knowing anything about it, but he couldn't help having this awful feeling in his stomach. Something was telling him that this was going to be trouble with a big 'T'.

It could be that, or his not so amusing habit of getting sea-sick.

--

As he saw the lurker coming towards them Daxter shouted out a warning to Jak, who had already turned around and in the process put himself in front of Daxter, still holding the mysteriously shining precursor object in his hands. With not so much time to think up what to do, Jak took a few strides towards the monster and threw the object at the attacker, hoping to hit its head and knock it out for a moment or two, getting enough time to grab Daxter and run to the boat.

But it didn't go exactly as planned, even though he did hit the lurker's head. As the orange glowing thing he'd thrown hit the beast, it exploded like a bomb, sending a shockwave towards the surprised Jak who was pushed backwards, colliding with Daxter before any of them had the chance to get out of the way.

Daxter instantly lost his balance as his friend bumped into him and falling backwards he realized there was something he was supposed to avoid behind himself. He remembered the black pool the very instant he made contact with the surface of the eco floating in it.

He was engulfed by the darkness before he could draw a breath and as the eco surrounded his body it started to sting like a thousand needles all over his skin. He wanted to scream, but couldn't find the air to do it. He fought to get back to the surface, but couldn't remember which way was up, and as the pain increased he was hindered from moving at all.

It was like being pushed at from all directions at once, a rough force squeezing him until he thought he would burst from the pressure. In a last try to escape this torment he tried to scream for help.

'_JAK!_'

Jak shook his head to clear his vision and he instantly turned around. With a shock of pure horror he scrambled up to the edge of the dark eco pool and looked down, fearing to find his friend drowning in the purple-black fluid.

Just as he was thinking about what to do, something small was shot out of the pool and landed roughly on the ground a little bit away from where Jak was standing on his knees. He turned around, a little bit stunned by the sudden appearance of the orange animal.

As Jak watched, the strange little creature got up on its hind legs, a little bit unstable and he recognised the animal from a painting in one of the old books Samos had shown him once. It was an ottsel.

"MAN, that stung!"

Jak couldn't believe his eyes.

'_Daxter?_'

The ottsel looked at him with a sour face and walked up to him.

" I told you we shouldn't have come here, and you listened…" he started with an angry voice, but cut himself off as he saw the surprised and somewhat horrified look in Jak's face, which in some weird way looked a lot bigger than he remembered.

"What?" he asked and spread his arms out.

'_Is it really you?_'

Daxter was about to ask him what he meant, but then he caught a glimpse of his hands and realised he was standing up while Jak was still on his knees, looking down.

Not quite believing what he was starting to discover about his appearance, he wiggled his fingers in front of his face and with a pang of realisation he started screaming, throwing himself on the ground, all the while thinking this couldn't be true.

For a short moment he tried to calm himself down and got back up on his feet.

"Okay, okay," he breathed heavily, "I'm fine, I'm fine." Then he looked at his feet. And started screaming anew, while holding on to Jak's clothes.

Worried about the screaming making other lurkers aware of where they were, Jak covered up his friend's mouth with one of his hands and hushed at him.

'_I'll get us out of here, and then I'll take you to my uncle. He can help._'

Daxter still breathed in panic, but agreed to the wisdom in that message and forced himself to keep quiet. As Jak rose up back on his feet, Daxter crawled up onto his shoulder-guard and got a firm grip around its edge with his fingers, trying not to think about the fact that he was actually going to be carried around sitting on his best friend's shoulder.

--

The very moment Samos woke up to find Jak's bed empty, he knew something wasn't right. He asked Keira if she'd seen the boy, but she hadn't. Worried he decided to meditate on the matter, hoping his instincts told him wrong.

As a small disturbance in the environment came to his notice, he knew that all his efforts to prevail the future he'd been trying to avoid had been useless. That's why he wasn't even surprised as Jak turned up in the doorway with a most worried look on his face, and a small orange animal at his feet.

'_I'm sorry I failed you, boys,_' he thought as he turned around to meet their eyes.

'_So it begins. As the outcome of nothing but a couple of boys' play._'


End file.
